722 



SPAIN. 



ficial members, princes of the blood, grandees, 

 and high public functionaries. The Congress 

 consists of 432 Deputies chosen for five years by 

 electoral colleges. The throne is hereditary in 

 the family of Bourbon-Anjou, with preference 

 to the male line. The present King is Alfonso 

 XIII, born May 17, 1886, whose mother, Queen 

 Maria Christina, acts as Regent until he shall 

 arrive at the age of sixteen years. 



The Council of Ministers", first constituted in 

 December, 1892, was composed, in the beginning 

 of 1894, as follows : President, Mateo Proxedes 

 Sagasta ; Minister of State, S. Moret, who suc- 

 ceeded the Marquis de Armijo in April, 1893 ; 

 Minister of Justice, K. Capdepon ; Minister of 

 Finance, G. Gamazo ; Minister of the Interior, 

 Lopez Puigcerver ; Minister of War, J. Lopez 

 Domingues; Minister of Marine, M. Pasquin ; 

 Minister of Public Works, Agriculture, and 

 Commerce, S. Moret ; Minister of the Colonies, 

 A. Maura. 



Area and Population. The area of Spain 

 is 197,670 square miles. The population on Dec. 

 ;:i, 1887, was 17,565,632; the legal population, 

 17.073,838, of whom 8,734,433 were males and 

 8,939,405 females. Madrid, the capital, had 470,- 

 283 inhabitants ; Barcelona, 272,481 ; Valencia, 

 170,763; Seville, 143,182; Malaga, 134,016. 



Finances. The revenue for 1893-'94amounted 

 to 715,267,204 pesetas, and the expenditure to 

 673,400,366 pesetas, giving a surplus of 41.866,838 

 pesetas. For the succeeding year the revenue 

 was estimated at 744,593,223 "pesetas, and the 

 expenditure at 769,126,720 pesetas, leaving a defi- 

 cit of 24.533,497 pesetas. The floating debt on 

 May 1, 1894, amounted to 340,851,228 pesetas, 

 having been increased to the extent of 172,510,- 

 228 pesetas during the ministry of Senor Sagasta. 

 The funded debt on Jan. 1, 1893, was 5,962,043,- 

 090 pesetas, requiring for interest and sinking 

 fund the annual payment of 271,150,858 pesetas. 



Commerce. The imports in 1892 had a total 

 value of 850,531,000 pesetas or francs; exports, 

 759,504,000 pesetas. Some of the principal im- 

 ports were: Cotton, 86,034,000 pesetas; coal, 

 50,489,000 pesetas; sugar, 45,232,000 pesetas; 

 timber, 44,575,000 pesetas ; machinery. 42,730,000 

 pesetas ; tobacco, 31,829,000 pesetas ; wheat, 27,- 

 761.000 pesetas ; codfish, 25,229,000 pesetas ; iron, 

 25,163,000 pesetas; woolens, 19,547,000 pesetas. 

 The values of some of the staple exports were : 

 Wine, 142,838,000 pesetas; lead, 52,600,000 pe- 

 setas ; iron, 43,197,000 pesetas ; copper, 41,908,000 

 pesetas; cotton cloths, 40,233,000 pesetas; shoes, 

 ^5,<i!j6,000 pesetas; cork, 25,015,000 pesetas; 

 raisins, 18,641,000 pesetas ; olive oil, 15.081,000 

 pesetas; oranges, 14,260,000 pesetas. Of the 

 total value of imports, 231,400,000 pesetas were 

 from France, 197.000,000 pesetas from Great 

 Britain, and 192,400,000 pesetas from American 

 countries; while of the exports, 259,300,000 pe- 

 setas went to France, 208,400,000 to America, 

 and 177,:500.()00 to Great Britain. 



Communications. The railroads have a total 

 length of 18,803 kilometres, all belonging to 

 companies subsidized by the Government. 



The post office in 1892 forwarded in the in- 

 ternal service 80,433,000 letters, 414,000 postal 

 cards, 46,970,000 newspapers and circulars, and 

 registered letters of the value of 139,769,000 

 francs ; in the foreign service, 22,366,000 letters, 



401,000 postal cards, 18,657,000 papers and cir- 

 culars, and 28,459,000 francs of money. The ex- 

 penses were 15,026,267 francs. 



The telegraphs in 1892 had a length of 29,386 

 kilometres, with 66,250 kilometres of wire. The 

 number of dispatches was 3,544,361 for the in- 

 terior and 1,153,067 in the international service. 

 The receipts were 6,988,399 pesetas; expenses. 

 5,913,397 pesetas. 



The Army and Navy. The peace strength 

 of the army in 1893 was 9,315 officers and 70,829 

 men, with 14,655 horses and mules and 396 field 

 guns. The army is being equipped with Mauser 

 rifles and carbines made in Germany. The peace 

 effective was raised in 1894 to 82,000 men, owing 

 to the operations on the coast of Morocco. The 

 war strength after the new organization has been 

 completed will be from 250,000 to 300,000 men. 



The navy consists of 1 turret ship, the " Pe- 

 layo," 5 armored cruisers of modern design, 2 

 old ironclad frigates, 1 monitor, 15 unarrnored 

 cruisers, 3 frigates, 5 torpedo gunboats, 1 tor- 

 pedo-catcher, 33 gunboats, 14 sloop gunboats, 1 

 vessel for the service of the mines, 13 torpedo 

 boats, and a torpedo depot vessel. There have 

 been built at Bilbao 3 new belted cruisers, the 

 first of which, the "Infanta Maria Theresa," 

 launched in the autumn of 1893, and the " Viz- 

 caya," launched in the summer of 1894, developed 

 a speed of 18'6 knots with natural draught. 



Session of the Cortes. Before the Cortes 

 met, a reconstruction of the Cabinet was thought 

 necessary. The Minister of Finance encountered 

 opposition to his arrangements with the railroad 

 companies and in regard to the proposed duty 

 on wines. The protest of the people of Navarre 

 against the collection of the taxes imposed upon 

 them in disregard of their ancient privileges 

 caused dissension in the Cabinet, which was di- 

 vided also on the question of granting an autono- 

 mous legislature to Cuba. On March 12 a 

 new Cabinet was constituted, in which the 

 Premier and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, 

 War, Marine, and Justice retained their port- 

 folios. Senor Amos Salvador succeeded Senor 

 Gamazo as Minister of Finance, with the under- 

 standing that he should follow out in the main 

 the policy of the retiring minister. Senor Groi- 

 zard took the portfolio of Public Works. Senor 

 Aguilera became Minister of the Interior. Senor 

 Becerra took the portfolio from Senor Maura, 

 who insisted on resigning because of the oppo- 

 sition of the majority to his bill for granting 

 home rule to Cuba. The Cortes assembled on 

 April 4. The Minister of Justice brought in a 

 bill for the repression of anarchism, which 

 makes death or penal servitude for life the pun- 

 ishment for attempts against persons or build- 

 ings with explosives when loss of life or wound- 

 ing results, and also when explosives are placed 

 in buildings or inhabited places where injury to 

 persons might result. Various terms of penal 

 servitude are prescribed for other classes of out- 

 rages. Persons found to have explosives in their 

 possession for which they can not satisfactorily 

 account are declared guilty of a felony, and it is 

 one to sell substances to be used in the manu- 

 facture of explosives with a criminal object. 

 The propaganda or glorification of criminal out- 

 rages is made punishable with severe sentences 

 of imprisonment, and if the accused are accom- 



